Like A Stock? Check Out Its Group In IBD Checkup

Spotting a group's leaders is a great way to hit the winners and avoid the laggards. And checking to make sure your stock is a leader can lead to pleasant surprises.

IBD's Stock Checkup can help you. This interactive feature at Investors.com will list a group's leaders by a number of crucial criteria, giving you a sort of 3D vision of that group.

Start at Investors.com's home page, and plug in a stock symbol in the "Get Quote" box. Let's put in AMSG, for AmSurg (NASDAQ:AMSG), an operator of 228 ambulatory surgery centers across the country.

The outpatient-home care group ranks seventh out of the 197 industries tracked by IBD, as of Wednesday, and the group has climbed quickly. So you can expect that this group's top stocks should be taken seriously.

The IBD Checkup for AmSurg appears, and you'll see the doctor pointing at the stock's Composite Rating — in this case, it's a very strong 98. You know that puts AmSurg practically at the top of the group by that gauge.

But you want to make sure.

And now, at closer glance, you notice that while AmSurg leads in Composite Rating and by Accumulation-Distribution Rating, it's not on top by other gauges.

It ranks sixth by EPS Rating, with just an 89. That puts it higher than 72% or its groupmates by that gauge.

It's also ranked just seventh by SMR Rating. That puts AmSurg in the top 66% of the group.

Is that good enough?

Now you want to scrutinize. Is AmSurg really the best name in this group? If not, what is?

Roll your mouse over the EPS Rating bar. The Group Leaders on the right now shows the top five names. You already know AmSurg isn't one of them.

But DaVita (NYSE:DVA) is. Plug that ticker into the "Rate A Stock" box, and you'll see the nationwide chain of 1,809 outpatient dialysis centers also earns a 99 Composite. What's more, its EPS and RS ranks are 97 and 90, respectively.

By EPS Rating, DaVita is the group's star, none better. By RS Rating, it ranks third.

By Accumulation-Distribution Rating (a pretty good B-), DaVita comes in eighth. And the Acc-Dis Rating for AmSurg has slipped from a top-notch A+ to a B.

As you continue parsing the group, a few truths will hit you. AmSurg appears in the group's top five by Composite, RS and Acc-Dis Ratings. DaVita pops up by four of the five criteria, but misses on just Accumulation.

AmSurg trades just 144,000 shares on an average day. Its Acc-Dis Rating may be easily skewed by a single buyer in a thin market. DaVita's volume, at more than a million shares per day, would be tougher to push around either way.

See Also

There's nothing like a steady stream of acquisitions to bulk up a company's market position. Add to that ongoing internal expansion, strong demand, and a push into new market segments and regions and you've got the power behind the strong growth at Acadia Healthcare Co. (NASDAQ:ACHC) Acadia is a ...

It's May, but don't go away. That's the advice for ETF investors from research firm S&P Capital IQ. Small-cap stocks, like their larger peers, lag from May through October. In fact, since 1979, they rose 2% on average during this period vs. 10.5% from November through April, says Capital IQ ...

Medicare physicians aren't the only ones relieved by Congress bringing down the curtain on 17 years of recurring debates, with a $214 billion doc fix that avoided a 21% cut in reimbursement and offered some payment relief to the home health care industry. The home health care perk was modest ...

The Medical-Outpatient/Home Care group outperformed Monday and has held a steady top 40 rank in recent weeks. The 12-stock group has six names with a Composite Rating of 90 or higher, led by AmSurg, which has the highest-possible 99 Composite Rating. AmSurg (NASDAQ:AMSG) owns and operates ...

03/02/2015 06:44 PM ET

More Investor's Corner Articles:

Technology moves quickly. IBD helps you not just get a handle on the latest and greatest, but it also helps you find stocks that are at the forefront of the latest advancements or benefiting from new technology. The Internet & Technology section, found every day in the newspaper's A section, ...

The 'N' in IBD's CAN SLIM investment system stands for "new": new products, new markets, new management — a company that is reformed or has a fresh strategy. All of these factors may point to a stock that is about to upshift and go places. On the other side of the coin are fundamental factors ...

Sometimes, there's no simple explanation as to why a stock rose or fell during a single session. But in the case of breakouts, many times it's positive earnings surprises that provide the fuel for a big rally's fire. An earnings surprise occurs when a company reports per-share profits outside of ...

While fundamentals drive stock prices, strong full-year profit estimates are another key barometer of a stock's potential. Growth stocks should have an earnings per share growth estimate of at least 15% for the current full year, although a number of leading names are often expected to show ...

Research shows that earnings are a key driver in a stock's performance. Consider this finding in "How to Make Money in Stocks" by IBD founder William J. O'Neil: "In our models of the 600 best-performing stocks from 1952 to 2001, three out of four showed earnings increases averaging more than 70% in ...

About Investor's Business Daily

Investor’s Business Daily provides exclusive stock lists, investing data, stock market research, education and the latest financial and business news to help investors make more money in the stock market. All of IBD’s products and features are based on the CAN SLIM® Investing System developed by IBD’s Founder William J. O’Neil, who identified the seven common characteristics that winning stocks display before making huge price gains. Each letter of CAN SLIM represents one of those traits.

Select market data is provided by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services. Price and Volume data is delayed 20 minutes unless otherwise noted, is believed accurate but is not warranted or guaranteed by Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services and is subject to Interactive Data Corp. Real Time Services terms. All times are Eastern United States. *Reflects real-time index prices.